Death Note news articles

It's always tragic when people die young. But when its suicide, then the tragedy, anger and guilt go into overdrive.

That's when the blame games really kick off, and a year ago this week, it was Death Note in the frame.

On February 20th 2013, a fifteen year old girl leapt from the 13th floor of an apartment building in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Her suicide note simply read, 'I don't want to live anymore'.

What drew the ire of her distraught parents towards Death Note was where the missive was left - on a pile of four volumes of the manga.

There was apparently no other link. She didn't write, nor tell friends, that Light Yagami had told her to do it. Nor did she seem to have any avowed affinity with Naomi Misora. It was just the position of the suicide note that made the link.

However, the teenager's bereft parents quickly blamed Death Note for making suicide seem so enticing.

That fury was channelled into a protest against the manga. Russian parents soon began campaigning for President Vladimir Putin to ban Death Note outright from the country.

Does Death Note Promote Suicide?

No. In my opinion, it really does not.

The parents protesting in the Urals stated that the story 'arouses an interest in death'. But so does living. And I'd argue that this particular manga actually warns against death.

As a Death Note fan, I know that there's nothing in the story to spark any wish to end your life. It's a dark tale, but those who die stay dead.

There's no fantasy Other World to entice the lost and lonely like, say, the Annwn of the Mabinogion or the Tír na nÓg of the Tain. The only supernatural realm present in the narrative is the home of the Shinigami, but mortals don't go there. It's for the Death Gods alone.

For a manga story so concerned with death and destruction, there's not even a single ghost. This isn't Bleach.

On the contrary, the only Fate mentioned for humans beyond death is Mu. That is the nothingness, the loss of all existence, for those who touch a Death Note. As for everyone else, the Death Note universe and its implied philosophy is completely silent on the matter.

If anything, Death Note is all about survival. People do reckless things, but the narrative is ultimately about a lot of individuals going out of their way to stay alive. If life wasn't so precious, then nobody would have cared enough about Kira to try and stop him.

My heart goes out to this girl's parents, and all others who loved her. They all have my profound condolences. But I'm hard pushed to think of anything in Death Note that could have inspired that leap, even if read through the twisted interpretations of extreme distress.

What do you all think?

Was Death Note Banned in Russia?

No, it wasn't.

Death Note was translated into Russian in 2012. It had long since been available on-line in Japanese, English and many other languages besides, so this wasn't the first time that Russians per se had access to it.

(In fact, I had two Russian Death Note fans ask permission to translate my fan-fiction back in 2009. They'd long since got past the point of enjoying the canon and well into the realms of fan produced stories in foreign languages!

Blanket permission was granted for them to translate any and all of my Death Note fan-fiction. They duly did so and added it to an already bustling Russian Death Note fan forum, which was bursting at the seams with stories based on the manga.)

President Putin has hitherto ignored calls for Russia to ban Death Note anime, manga and other related media. Hence the Russian Death Note fandom are still able to hear Nika Lenina's beautiful version of the original ending theme song.

I just wish that the poor girl in Yekaterinburg could too.

What are your thoughts on the subject? Could Death Note have really been a factor in the teenager's death? And do you think Russia should ban the manga, or keep on importing and translating it?

I've long since heard of an old interview with Death Note creator Tsugumi Ohba, in which he (or she) described the original ending of the story.

Mello would have won.

Today I actually found said interview. Which shocked me. I secretly thought a Mello fan had made it up!

Here is the transcript of the relevant section:

Were Mello’s actions at the end already decided from the start?

No, it was not. I was still pondering about what to do with Mello when the story reached the stage where Shidoh returned to Death Gods’ world. I had intended that Mello would be the one to defeat Light. Being number 2 at Wammy’s house, Mello was the dark horse whom I wanted to see the winner.

Why was this not the ending that was told?

Mello knew too much about Death Note. If he had won, it would be too easy a win. Hence, I made him attempt to physically capture Light one on one, resulting in his death, which was meant to be very dramatic. Original interview with Tsugumi Ohba by The Star Online, but no cyber version exists. English translation by ScarredinSilence

So what do you make of that? Anyone wishing that was the extant ending, or did Ohba make the right decision in penning the one that we got?

It's been two years since I last published an instalment in my multi-chaptered homage to Death Note. Naturally people occasionally ask about this, even as they declare themselves resigned to the fact that no further adventures will ever happen.

Never say never.

The fact is that I'm already twenty-eight chapters (fully or partially written) into an eleventh novel. It takes place two years after the events in The Walls Came Tumbling Down and it's probably the lightest one yet.

Let's face it. We needed something a little heart warming after the sheer darkness of Annals of Fear and WCTD!

The as yet unnamed story focuses upon the activities of the EHC, hence it's more Matt-centric than most of the previous ones. However, those who've read the drafts say that the focus serves to provide much more insight into Mello. He gets to explore his softer side a little more.

However, please don't get too excited here. Glaciers move and continents form faster than I'm writing this. I began last October, and only 28 chapters are even vaguely there.

Police were called into an elementary school, in Florence, Arizona, after a student was found with a Death Note.

It's unclear whether the notebook was hand-made or a merchandised version designed for cosplay. But it had Death Note written on the cover along with at least one rule - those names written inside will die.

Within the pages, the adolescent had penned the names of over a dozen fellow pupils at Anthem Elementary School.

His family had already been concerned about the boy's depression. He'd been kept off school for the first part of the week - in early February 2014 - in order that he might calm down somewhat.

Once back in class, his teachers were tipped off when he sent a text to another student threatening suicide. The Death Note was discovered when his school-bag was searched, and local police department was duly alerted.

Parents of pupils at Anthem Elementary School received a robocall notice that a threat had been detected on the premises. Those whose names were on the list were personally called by the head teacher.

The boy never gave any indication that he planned to physically harm the other children. He seemed to hope that his Death Note would actually work.

He's now undergoing (presumably psychiatric) treatment, after which the school will decide what - if any - action they will take.

By now the whole Death Note fandom is agog at the notion that something new is coming. But what is it?

The first hint was posted in Shueisha's Jump Remix of the Death Note manga. In the fifth edition, an advertisement was posted on the underside of the fly cover. It stated that there was a 'special project' coming soon to mark Death Note's 10th Anniversary.

The site displayed a countdown towards March 3rd 2014 - the same date heralded in the manga advert as the launch date of the 'special project'. The Death Note website featured a familiar black notebook, with the legend warning us that ' 'If you touch this note, your memory will revive''.

Naturally every Death Note fan in the known universe touched it. It would take more than the cautionary tale exhibited by Raito Yagami to see us off.

Yet all we got for our troubles was an image of Ryuk flashing into view. All...

Mmm... so what it's all about? The main buzz on the internet seems to be that a new edition of the original manga will be issued. But that's been done several times during the intervening ten years. It's already happening with the Jump Remix right now.

Others have guessed that the Death Note anime will be remade. Does it really warrant that? The extant one isn't very old, and it's hardly dated. It's just about perfect as it is.

Could it be a new story being written as we muse in anxious anticipation? Perhaps a stand-alone tale updating us on the fortunes of those left alive, or following through on ambiguous clues that Light himself is now a shinigami. Maybe even a whole follow on series, wherein another person picks up a Death Note and Near scrambles a squad to hunt that new Kira down.

Or another live action movie following another tangent not covered in canon?

The most potentially disappointing scenario I've heard is that it's merely a countdown to an official announcement of Death Note the Musical. But we already know about that. It wouldn't be any surprise at all.

How about you? Have you any major guesses that haven't already been covered here? There's surely little that it could be!

Ten years ago, the first chapters of Death Note were only just being published.

Light Yagami had picked up that fallen black book, but hadn't yet worked out precisely what it could do.

We hadn't even heard of L, let alone Mello and Near.

We'd barely glimpsed Ryuk. We had no idea that Rem, Sidoh and a whole shadow universe of Shinigami were watching our world so closely.

With the saga yet to play out, there was no indication that Death Note would go on to sell over 30 million copies of the manga world-wide, nor that it would be adapted into a 37 episode anime. The three live action movies probably weren't even in the dreams of its creators. They were too busy worrying about chapters two and three.

Funny how time flies, isn't it?

The 10th anniversary of Death Note might seem like a strange time in which to start blogging about it. But since when did convention figure in any of this?

Plus this isn't the first record of my musings ever. I wrote regularly on MangaBullet before it disappeared into the cyber equivalent of Mu. I was a moderator on Guns & Games too. Thus I penned many of that MelloxMatt community group's editorials.

I plan to write here as the mood takes me, or news about Death Note permeates the mists. It probably won't be a regular event, hence I recommend subscribing to the RSS feed, if you require an alert.